KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Senior PDP leader and Member Parliament, Tariq Hameed Karra Sunday said the State and the Union Governments must reach out to the people in J&K, sooner the better, to address their political, economic, security and developmental concerns.
“Unfortunately, people in the State today seem to have got mired in a dismaying scenario of cynicism and disillusionment as, even after the change of guard, they see nothing moving on the ground on political, security, economic and developmental fronts,” Karra said in a statement issued here today.
Karra said if immediate and tangible measures are not taken to address, at least, the security and developmental concerns of the people, the escalating disenchantment “could fuel a fresh wave of alienation, which will have its own dangerous consequences”.
“It is high time that the State’s political executive objectively assesses the situation on the ground so that much-needed course-corrections could be made in the Government functioning without any further delay,” he said and added that the onus lies on the Government of India also to reach-out to the State and its people with the much-needed financial package for reconstruction of dilapidated infrastructure and revival of the sagging economy.
“While the founding principle and the core agenda of PDP was based on fighting repression in all its forms and manifestations, ironically, now in alliance with BJP, the party today is perceived to have become an anti-thesis of own political philosophy,” he said and added that there are many lessons for PDP leadership to be learnt from the systemic downfall of National Conference (NC), once an unchallenged political force in the State. He said the people made NC leaders to bite the dust, as they started feeling that the party was repeatedly compromising the State’s interests for power.
“There are many lessons to be learnt from NC’s self-inflicted ruin and I am sure PDP leadership has ample wisdom not to tread the same perilous path,” he said and added that if people rejected NC and gave PDP the mandate to pull the State out of the political and economic morass, they have every right to make its leadership accountable for their actions and inactions.
“People had reposed their faith in PDP given the impressive track record of the coalition government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed between 2002 and 2005 as, at that time, instantaneous relief was visible on the ground on security and developmental fonts because of the then government’s assertive pro-people policies,” Karra said and added that unfortunately this time round no “such perceptible change seems to be there in the situation and in fact the general perception is that the things are going from the bad to the worst”.
He said the PDP leadership must reach out to the party cadres who have played a crucial role in “getting us there where we are today.”
Karra also paid glowing tributes to the Martyrs of 13 July 1931 saying their sacrifices laid the foundation for ending the autocratic rule from Jammu and Kashmir.
